[ClaraT]

I just had my less than 3 month old 800 G4 ibook go bananas on me.
Suddenly the screen went haywire--it went blank, then black with a bunch of text rolling down the page over and over. It looked like an old DOS screen.

Finally came to a stop and here's some of what was at the bottom of all this gibberish:

"Kernel version

Darwin Kernel Version 7.3.0

Fri Mar 5 14:22:55 PST 2004, root:xnu/xnu-517.3.15.obj


Waiting for remote debugger connection"


I believe this is a kernel panic, right? This happened before, but not with the text rolling, scrolling. I've also had the grey box with "you need to restart your computer" come on several times.

In reading posts on this Forum I know I'm heading to an Apple store for help, but what advice do you have for getting my computer problem resolved. I'm
concerned I'm going to be without it for awhile, that they won't really "fix it" and I'll be left with a problematic machine.

Additional info--I was sendig a file from Appleworks to my printer HP OfficeJet when this happened. Yesterday I downloaded the test drive of Office 2004. That's about all I've done.

Thanks in advance for your help.


Clarat

[discotronic]

It is a Kernel Panic. More often than not the problem stems from a RAM module gone bad. Try removing it and running the system. If the panic doesn't come back you know it's the RAM. If you are still having it then the problem is with something else.

[The Placid Casual]

Wow, if you had the DOS looking screen on 10.3, you had a nasty kernel panic... not even the civilized multi-lingual one!

In my experience a KP comes from a hardware issue/conflict of some type.

Have you connected new peripherals? New USB Hub? New Network stuff, New Ram? etc

Look in your ''crash log' and see what it says. (or post it here for someone to translate...)

Regardless of anything, I would first run 'fix disk permissions' first and also fsck. See if this helps.

From the sound of it, it could be a print driver or something like that. I'd look on the printer manufacturers website and see if there are updated drivers. If there are, install them ASAP.

Chances are that it is not a major problem unless it keeps happening... So you may yet avoid that trip to the Applestore!

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by discotronic:
It is a Kernel Panic. More often than not the problem stems from a RAM module gone bad. Try removing it and running the system. If the panic doesn't come back you know it's the RAM. If you are still having it then the problem is with something else.

If the RAM has been in there for months/years with no problem, I would suggest looking elsewhere for the fault.

If the problem occurs immediately after you have added new RAM, then it is probably the culprit. Other than that, probably the next thing that commonly causes KPs is the USB channels and connections.

It is very, very rare for RAM to suddenly go bad after a sustained long period of correct function.

[ClaraT]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
Wow, if you had the DOS looking screen on 10.3, you had a nasty kernel panic... not even the civilized multi-lingual one!

In my experience a KP comes from a hardware issue/conflict of some type.

Have you connected new peripherals? New USB Hub? New Network stuff, New Ram? etc

Look in your ''crash log' and see what it says. (or pot it here for someone to translate...)

Regardless of anything, I would first run 'fix disk permissions' first and also fsck. See if this helps.

From the sound of it, it could be a print driver or something like that. I'd look on the printer manufacturers website and see if there are updated drivers. If there are, install them ASAP.

Chances are that it is not a major problem unless it keeps happening... So you may yet avoid that trip to the Applestore!

This is very helpful, thank you. I feel like I 've got somewhere to start troubleshooting and hopefully resolve this scary issue.

I did install 512 ram from Crucial the first week I got my ibook. . .almost 3 mos. ago.

Right now as I type this, there's a slight delay, lag in the letters coming on the screen. The fan is also on--it rarely comes on--and it's pretty hot beneath my left wrist.

Just more info to work with.

I'm going to shut down for a while and let things cool off--then follow your advice.


Clarat

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by ClaraT:
This is very helpful, thank you. I feel like I 've got somewhere to start troubleshooting and hopefully resolve this scary issue.

I did install 512 ram from Crucial the first week I got my ibook. . .almost 3 mos. ago.

Right now as I type this, there's a slight delay, lag in the letters coming on the screen. The fan is also on--it rarely comes on--and it's pretty hot beneath my left wrist.

Just more info to work with.

I'm going to shut down for a while and let things cool off--then follow your advice.


Clarat

No problem, glad to help.

Thinking about it, I would first of all before anything else, run the Hardware Test CD that came with the machine, and rule out anything like a bad processor or Logic board.

This gives you a good spring board to trouble shoot from as it counts out certain major faults from consideration.

Good luck,

Marc

[discotronic]

Originally posted by The Placid Casual:
If the RAM has been in there for months/years with no problem, I would suggest looking elsewhere for the fault.

If the problem occurs immediately after you have added new RAM, then it is probably the culprit. Other than that, probably the next thing that commonly causes KPs is the USB channels and connections.

It is very, very rare for RAM to suddenly go bad after a sustained long period of correct function.

RAM can go bad overnight. I had it happen to me just recently with my newest iBook and it happened with my Blueberry iBook also. On my newest one, I had the RAM for almost a year and all of the sudden I started getting KP's. I took the module out and no KP's. Put it back in and they started again. Sent it back for replacement and it works perfect now.

[The Placid Casual]

Originally posted by discotronic:
RAM can go bad overnight. I had it happen to me just recently with my newest iBook and it happened with my Blueberry iBook also. On my newest one, I had the RAM for almost a year and all of the sudden I started getting KP's. I took the module out and no KP's. Put it back in and they started again. Sent it back for replacement and it works perfect now.

I'm not denying it can happen (overheating timing chips and such), but it generally does not happen on a very regular basis...